BCCS September Newsletter 2022

Obituaries
MERVYN PARKER
Mervyn Parker was born in the parish of Thriplow at
Sunnypeak on the 21 July 1931.
He attended the village primary school and whilst there was
asked to pump the organ in Thriplow church at some of the
services.
He then gained a scholarship to Cambridge Boys Grammar
school where he excelled and left with flying colours. Whilst at
the grammar school his claim to fame was baby sitting Olivia
Newton John, who was a daughter of one of the masters. He
would pride himself on missing a morning bus connection and
so making him late for assembly.
On leaving school he threw his cap over the hedge and never
ever afterwards wore a cap nor any head gear.
After school he joined the family business at Thriplow House,
which had been used as a hospital during World War 2. The
family were poultry farmers and the house was originally
purchased to house chickens but they decided to move into
part of it and convert the remainder into flats with state of the
art poultry hatching facilities built in the grounds.
Mervyn delivered day old chicks to farms and fresh eggs to
vending machines around East Anglia,so there is nothing new
in modern dairy farmers selling milk through local vending
machines.
Mervyn was a keen supporter of the Young Farmers Club and
was a founder member of the Thriplow YFC branch, where he
held the positions of chairman, treasurer, executive member
and county YFC treasurer. Through the YFC he met many
good friends but none more so than Chris, his wife to be.
They started courting (as it was called in those days) after a
mixed hockey tournament in Norfolk, where he asked Chris
to go to the Saffron Walden Valentines ball. Three years later
they married on the 15 May 1957 and lived at Gay Dawn in
Thriplow.
In 1964 the family moved to Kneesworth and Mervyn
started working for the Playle family abattoir as the livestock
procurement manager, specialising in pig contract supplies and
buying pigs from the various markets around the Midlands and
Southern England.
He really loved this side of the business as it suited his sharp
mathematical brain and his need for speed when dashing
around the countryside. Unfortunately one particular night
he tried to drive through a ford which was too deep and the
car was washed away much to the amusement of the family
and friends. He eventually became the general manager of the
abattoir.
The family then relocated in 1976 to Low Farm in
Bassingbourn, where as well as his day job Mervyn spent 8
years as a district councillor.
In 1978 Mervyn and Chris started breeding Charolais cattle
under the Bassingbourn prefix and he was also a partner in
the well established Large Black pig herd which Chris had
founded some years earlier.
The cattle and the pigs spent
many weeks on the summer
show circuit around the
Midlands and the Southern
England shows They were
very successful and won
many championships and
were great supporters of
the Royal Show but because
of Mervyn’s abattoir
commitments he was the
silent partner who in those
days was keeping the home
fires burning.
In 1992 after the closure of Mervyn Parker
the abattoir, Mervyn and
Chris moved to Grange Farm
where he took a more prominent role in farming and attending
shows and the Bassingbourn Charolais herd was expanded.
The Parker family were always great supporters of Charolais at
both Anglian Charolais regional events as well as supporting
national Charolais shows and would happily host Open Days.
When the BCCS council of management invited the Parker
family to host the World Charolais Congress in 1997 there was
no hesitation.
Mervyn took more and more interest in the Charolais world
and eventually was a British Charolais director representing
the Anglian region.It soon became apparent he did not do
grey areas. He was black and white with his comments and
decisions. Mervyn had a sharp mathematical brain when the
budgets and accounts were being discussed and so, as they
say, the cream comes to the top and he was appointed the
BCCS treasurer. This was a role he relished and as a new broom
he wanted figures for various nominals and proposed budgets
and their updates. He was given them the next day,which
impressed him and we got on like a house on fire.
We spoke on a daily basis and if I hadn’t phoned him by 10
o’clock when he was having his coffee he was wanting to know
what was wrong.
He would go through the monthly budget updates with a fine
tooth comb and if there was an error he was soon on the
phone, which I explained was a deliberate mistake to see if
he was paying attention!! Towards the end of his 6 year term
a decision was made to build a permanent show structure on
the Royal Welsh Showground. Mervyn took a keen interest
in the construction partly because he had been involved in
several commercial outlets in the family farming enterprises
but also because he was the BCCS treasurer and he wanted to
make sure the budgets were on target.
Because he was such an able treasurer the Council of
Management invited him to remain as treasurer in an ex
officio capacity. A position he held until he called it a day when
he was 83.
He was then appointed the BBCS president in 2014, a position
his wife Chris had held some 10 years earlier, making them
still the only married couple to hold this prestigious position,
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- No bull works harder for the farmer, the plate and the planet -
September newsletter 22.indd 86 16/09/2022 15:01:33